The Jeff Pulver Blog: Catching up on VON Europe 2005 Blur...

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May 28, 2005

Catching up on VON Europe 2005 Blur...

This past week, "VON Blur" caught up with me like a ton of bricks. Richard Stastny understands VON Blur and knows how to best prepare for it.

At VON Europe 2005, I spent time in some of the sessions, I caught up with some old friends, made some new ones and in my spare time, took some photos. :-)

This was the week when the Global IP Alliance came into its own. Both Niklas and I referred to the Global IP Alliance in our talks and the "Birds of a Feather" session hosted on Monday night hosted by the Global IP Alliance was well attended.

Based on the success of VON Europe 2005, we have made the commitment to produce two European VON events starting in 2006. In May, 2006 we will be returning to Stockholm which will be followed by a second European VON event in 2006 which will be held in November, 2006 in Amsterdam.

While I was at VON, I realized that I have some serious concerns regarding the way SIP is being used inside of IMS and the limitations mobile operators are placing on their customers. As a fan of end-user empowerment, IMS appears to be the antithesis of End-User Empowerment.

Amongst the friends attending VON Europe 2005 included bloggers: Jon Arnold, James Enck, Steve Smith, and Richard Stastny. There may have been others blogging, but these were the ones I knew who blogged in English. (If you blogged about VON Europe 2005 in another language, please drop me a note.)

One of the gems I discovered on our exhibit floor was a new company that had developed a SIP Client for the Nokia 6630...I ended up becoming one of their first customers.

Our conference party with the Herding Cats on Wednesday night was a lot of fun. While I didn't take any pictures from the party myself, if you were a guest at the party and would like to share some of your photos from your camera phone, please send the photo(s) to my gmail account.

Being caught up in the VON Blur I missed some of the VON Europe 2005 posts in the blogsphere.

First the VON Europe 2005 Summaries:

Richard Stastny: Wrap-up from VON Europe 2005

James Enck: VON impressions, et al
(Note to James: the room was set with 600 seats and we ended up having to use an overflow room for the Tuesday morning sessions.)

Jon Arnold: More VON Europe notes/thoughts - Skype, Telio, peer to peer and James Enck

Additional blog postings:

The Progress & Freedom Foundation: The View from Stockholm
Richard Stastny: Blogging from the VON Europe 2005
Richard Stastny: Kapsch CarrierCom at VON Europe 2005
Jon Arnold: VON Europe - Day 1 - No Limits
Jon Arnold: VON Europe - Day 2/3 Update
Mark Evans: Skype's Evolution Continues
The Register: Skype makes empassioned 911 plea

I did find it interesting that the ITU took notice of Niklas's keynote. see: ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog: Skype CEO's Keynote at VON Europe.

A lot of business took place while we were in Stockholm and I'm glad we were once again able to serve the purpose of bringing together the worldwide IP Communications industry.

Special thanks to everyone who came out and helped make VON Europe 2005 a VON to remember.

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